Old editions
Yellowed paper, worn letters and lithograph printing.
Scanned Arabic PDF to Word, for whole books
For researchers, libraries and publishers whose Arabic sources exist only as scans. Upload the whole scanned book and get back text you can work on: headings, footnotes, tables and columns in their order, in Arabic or in English. Stop at a Word file, or carry on to translation and print.
14 days and 10,000 words, no card needed.
HeadingFrom this page
Body text with vowel marksThe page text as it came out
OrnamentRecognized, and not read as text
TableRows and columns you can edit
FootnoteLinked to its place in the text
Which route suits your book?
For one clean page, a free OCR tool is enough. The difference starts when the whole book is in front of you.
| What you need | Free tool | Typing by hand | Tarjum |
|---|---|---|---|
| One clean page | Enough | More than the job is worth | More than the job is worth |
| A whole book in one go | Page and batch limits | Possible, and slow | Built for this |
| Tables, equations and drawings | Often fall apart | Often charged extra | Keep their structure |
| Footnotes and columns | The order gets scrambled | Depends on the typist | In their places |
| Cost | Free, or a subscription | Paid by the page | Included in your plan |
| The next step | Start again in another tool | Start again | Translation and print in the same place |
Will the text come out without mistakes?
Tarjum turns scanned books into text you can edit, and mistakes happen. Old paper, vowel marks and rare typefaces need checking, so we show you the places we are unsure of, for you to review.
Text with vowel marks
The vowel marks stay, and the doubtful places are flagged.
Mixed pages
Arabic and English on the same line.
Two-column pages
Each column is read in its right order.
You have the text. What next?
Many people start with a Word file and stop there. If the book is on its way to another language or to the printer, the next steps are on the same platform.
Word file
EPUB
Translation
Print PDF
Questions about converting scanned books
Does the file keep its layout?
The structure stays: headings, paragraphs, tables and footnotes. The look of the page itself is rebuilt, because the aim is text you can edit.
Can I upload a book that isn’t mine?
Upload what you have the right to digitize. We do not supply or publish books, and the rights stay with their owners.
Does it work with scanned English books?
Yes, the same way, and you can carry on to an Arabic translation if you want one.
What about manuscripts?
That is an experimental feature, so please talk to us first.
Send your hardest pages
That is how people test a typist: with one hard page. Do the same here.